Assessing environmental health using ecological indices for soft bottom in sewage-affected rocky shores: The case of the largest seaside resort of SW Atlantic

GARAFFO GRISELDA; JAUBET LOURDES; BECHERUCCI MARIA EUGENIA; ELÍAS RODOLFO

MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2016

0025-326X

Efficient ecological indices can reflect the differences between impacted and nonimpacted sites, leading to significantvariations at the contamination spatial scale. Here, we evaluated the spatial-temporal variability of 3 ecologicalindices (AMBI, M-AMBI, and BENTIX) in response to the distinct levels of sewage contamination. The indiceswere evaluated in two different ways: including Brachidontes rodriguezii (IBR) and excluding B. rodriguezii (EBR).The fact that mussel beds create a secondary infaunal habitat allows us to test these indices for soft bottoms inareas with rocky bottoms. The effectiveness and the level of agreement of these indices were increased whenthey were calculated with EBR. BENTIX and M-AMBI produced under- and overestimations of the ecological statusof the studied sites. AMBI (EBR) seems to be better suited for environmental quality assessment in the studyarea. This index reduces the processing time of samples; thus, the AMBI (EBR) index could be used as a robustmanagement tool for monitoring programs in areas with hard substrate.